


Don't Tell the School I'm Coming Home

by Haunted_Frost



Category: Marvel, Marvel Cinematic Universe, Spider-Man - All Media Types, The Avengers (Marvel) - All Media Types
Genre: Avengers Family, Field Trip, Flash Thompson Redemption, Fluff, Gen, Humor, Identity Reveal, Peter Parker's Field Trip to Stark Industries, Team as Family, Tony Stark Acting as Peter Parker's Parental Figure
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-06-01
Updated: 2019-06-22
Packaged: 2020-04-06 04:20:30
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 7,690
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19055125
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Haunted_Frost/pseuds/Haunted_Frost
Summary: Peter should learn to just stay home.  His first big field trip, he got bitten by a radioactive spider. Then, with the Decathalon team, he had to save his friends in DC. He didn't even get to go to MOMA.Well, at least he knew who would show up on this one. A little controlled chaos couldn't be too terrible, right?“We’ll make it a no-shenanigans zone as best we can,” Bruce said, smirking a little.  “I certainly wouldn’t mind that.”  And Peter definitely felt better about it.“Not no shenanigans,” Peter grinned, “Or we’d all be fooling ourselves.”Exactly what it looks like, with cameos from Big Hero Six and Young Avengers. Just fun and fluff here!





	1. Please Let this be a Normal Field Trip

**Author's Note:**

> It's obligatory at this point and I really did want to write it. Will probably be 2-3 parts, just a fun little take on the trope from my perspective. Endgame? Who's she?
> 
> I like tropey as heck fics don't @me for that lol

* * *

He had the worst best friends, because they were both laughing at his misfortune and misery. 

“No.  Just, no.  So much no.”  Peter stared at the field trip permission form in horror.  “This, right here, is proof that god has abandoned us, Ned.”

“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” Ned chirped, “I’m so ready for this.”

“Abandoned me specifically, then.  I’m going to die.  I’m already dying.”

“If dying means cells not regenerating as fast as they die, we’ve all got a few years yet, Peter.  You’re just being dramatic.  Somewhere in your twenties you can start freaking out about dying,” MJ said. 

“That makes me feel a lot better, thanks,” Peter grumbled.  “That actually explains a lot about the twenty-somethings I know.”

“You’re welcome.”

The reason Peter was dying this time was a packet of papers—a bit more than the usual for a field trip, but there was a reason for that.  The reason being Stark Tower was the destination.  It was an _overnight_ trip, and he was going to _die_ because he already lived there. 

He was, after all, Peter Stark.  Not that anyone at large knew—Aunt May had moved him into the Tower that summer while they were finalizing the paperwork.  They’d agreed to tell the public about the last-name change at a later date—preferably after Peter was no longer a minor, according to Tony.  He didn’t want to bring a kid into that amount of crazy with everything else he already had going on. 

The Avengers that stayed at the Tower, not the Compound or elsewhere, knew this—after all, they were practically his family.  And the ones that didn’t live there were friends. 

He did _not_ want anyone to give him shit for this, but it was probably inevitable. 

* * *

“Uh, so, yeah.  I need you to sign off on the field trip and can you please make a note that I won’t be taking the bus to or from school that day?  Because I’ll literally just be coming right back.”  May was silently laughing already. 

“Right, got it.  And the affiliation with Stark Industries forms?”

“Yeah, I’ll get Tony to sign them, we’ll see how that goes,” Peter grumbled.  “At least Flash will stop giving me shit about not having a _real_ internship.  I passed all the tests, I qualified for it all except for the age thing!”

May’s laughter became a lot less silent. 

* * *

“So, I hear your class is touring the Tower,” Tony grinned. 

“I swear to—to _Thor_ ,” he grumbled, “Don’t, please.”

“We’re not going to ruin your life, kid,” frowned Clint.  “Just fun stuff—the kind of thing the internship would cover for the most part, right?” Peter sighed. 

“I have bad luck with field trips.  First Oscorp, I get bit by a radioactive spider.  Then the DC trip and Vulture and all that came with that.  Then—well, I never did get to go on the next one, on account of a big dumb grape,” he snapped his fingers quietly.  “So you see why I’m not a fan, right?”

“Shit, kid,” Bucky frowned.  “Look, you know we’re here for you.  This one’s gonna make up for at least DC, right?  We’re going to be around this time, on your side.” 

“Just, can I have full disclosure on who’s going to be in that day?  So there’s less surprises?  Because it’s always something extremely unwelcome and unexpected.”

“All of us, I imagine,” Steve said, “Anyone expecting any visitors?”

“Coulson and Fury might be in and out with Hill,” guessed Natasha. 

“And you really can’t account for Asgardians dropping in.  I do know that Sam’s coming,” Steve grinned. 

“That’s . . . not so bad.  As long as the Guardians or the Four don’t drop in, it actually should be okay, right?” he said. 

“We’ll make it a no-shenanigans zone as best we can,” Bruce said, smirking a little.  “I certainly wouldn’t mind that.”  And Peter definitely felt better about it. 

“Not _no_ shenanigans,” Peter grinned, “Or we’d all be fooling ourselves.”

* * *

 

“All right, we’ve got the field trip roster together and we don’t need any parent chaperones, thanks to Principal Morita and Ms. Warren joining us,” Mr. Harrington said with a grin.  “You can imagine Mr. Morita was excited to visit the Avengers exhibits.  I’ve been instructed to go over Stark Industries guidelines and our itinerary for the day.”

When they arrived, they’d receive passes that they had to have on them at all times.  They’d be getting a two-and-a-half-hour basic tour explaining Stark Industries history and the history and architecture of the tower.  This would include the Avengers museum, with suits and weapons and all sorts of cool stuff.  Then they’d have a lunch break before going to the R&D labs. 

Mr. Harrington was very firm that they were to follow the lab assistants’ instructions while they were going through labs, because anything could be dangerous.  Peter bit his lip, thinking about how he definitely didn’t dye Clint’s hair pink for a week with the powder puff arrows he’d been working on.  (“I told you not to get it wet or it stains!” “Then how are you supposed to get it out?!” “Well, it’s too late now!”)

“Heh, gonna show us your lab while you’re there, Parker?” asked Flash.  He’d definitely mellowed out a little bit, only making jabs that seemed half-sarcastic.  Usually he was downright friendly with Peter, though, which Freshman Peter would not have believed.  He still made halfhearted jabs at Peter’s intern status, though.  It was practically an inside joke by the time senior year had rolled around. 

“If I can, sure,” he replied.  “But I’m pretty sure Mr. Stark is going to steal us from the tour and put us in his lab at some point—”

“Mr. Thompson, Mr. Parker, care to share with the class?” They both shrunk in their seats. 

“No, Mr. Harrington.”

After the R&D tour, they had some options to go in groups of four to seven to shadow interns and approved employees of their choosing.  After that, there was dinner, then some educational film stuff.  Then they were sleeping over.

In Stark Tower.

The next day was the one most people were looking forward to—demonstrations by SHIELD liaisons with Stark Industries, visiting upper level labs (again with the safety parameters that everyone but the actual scientists seemed to follow.  Actually, scratch Tony stealing them day one, he was totally just going to take them to his personal lab day two instead of the secondary ones.

Then they would have a visit to the Avengers training rooms, where, if they signed waivers and were old enough, they could take lessons from real Avengers training techniques.  The tour would end with a Q&A by whatever Avengers and SI people were available. 

“Do we know what Avengers are going to be there?” asked Abe. 

“I honestly have next to no idea, but I’m hoping for a large group,” Mr. Harrington said.  “Obviously that depends on each of their individual schedules.  The only ones I’m sure of are Tony Stark, who will definitely be in, and Spider-Man, who won’t due to his secret identity.  That was made clear, since those are obviously popular contenders.”

Mixed rumbles of disappointment about Spidey and satisfaction about Stark filled the room as the bell rang. 

“. . . could Spidey make an appearance?  Like, when you don’t need to be accounted for?” Ned asked.  “That would be _so dope._ ”

“It would, but that would take planning, and frankly, if I plan anything, it will go to hell, and I am not going to tempt that.”

“Wise words,” MJ grinned, “A rare occasion, Parker.  I’ll mark the date.”

* * *

 

Everyone was instructed to take an overnight bag, but Peter got to sleep in for once because he was staying at the Tower.  He grinned and texted MJ and Ned. 

Biderman: There is one (1) amazing thing about this.  I rolled out of bed two minutes ago.

TheSitch: uuuuuuuuuuuuugh

I’mAKnife: Just remember that.  You got to sleep in like an hour and a half more.  Congrats. 

Biderman: AND I got pancakes from Bucky

TheSitch: This is the worst thing you could have said to me

I’mAKnife: Third thing, you don’t have to listen to Flash goading you about your internship like, ever again, because we’re meeting you there and it’ll be obvious

Biderman: This is too much good karma

Biderman: Something terrible is going to happen

Biderman: I just know it

* * *

Peter got changed and went down to the lobby.  Diane at the receptionist desk waved him over with a smile, so he chatted with her while he waited for the bus to pull up.  She was always fun—told stories about her friends, who were super dorks if her fond exasperation was anything to go by. 

“Ah, there’s your class.  I’ll call Harley down now and he’ll pass out the lanyards and such,” she said, shooing him towards his friends. 

“Peter!” Flash said in mock shock, “Where have you _been?_ ”

“Beds empty, no note, car gone,” piped up Cindy, which caused a smattering of giggles.  Peter tried to pretend it wasn’t funny—the image of Flash Thompson as Mrs. Weasley—and only just managed not to laugh out loud. 

“All right, all right,” Principal Morita said, “Now everyone, I want you on your best behavior, remember?  You are representing Midtown.”  Everyone nodded absently, and by then, their guide had arrived. 

“Sorry,” he said, winded, “Someone messed with the code on one of my projects and I had to fix it before it did some really dumb software damage—hi.  I’m Harley and I’ll be your guide today.  First, chaperone passes—Mr. Harrington, Mr. Morita, Ms. Warren,” he said, holding out the lanyards with large passes. 

“When I call your name, come up and get it!  And I understand we have an existing intern in the class and two frequent guests?” he asked.  Peter put on his badge and Ned and MJ did the same.  Harley nodded, grinning.

“Peter, right?  Awesome, man.  Glad to lead _you_ around this time!” he laughed, “All right, everyone, bags in bins, through the metal detectors.  The voice you’ll hear is Friday, the building’s AI, and she will make sure you’re not sneaking contraband or anything in.  She’s amazing,” he gestured to the ceiling. 

“Why, thank you, Harley,” she said. 

“Say hi to Friday, everyone!” he encouraged, and the class dazedly complied.  She chuckled. 

“Hi, Midtown.  Enjoy your visit.”

As they passed through the metal detector which was really a _check for all contraband_ detector a la Friday, everyone was identified loudly enough for the whole lobby to hear.  That way, if someone dangerous was coming through, the guards could be on alert.  Harper went through first to demonstrate. 

“Harley Keener.  Approved Access.  No dangerous substances identified.  Welcome.”

He gestured for everyone else to continue.  Their passes had been organized alphabetically, so they were kind of lined up that way. 

“Brant, Betty, Guest Access.  No dangerous substances identified. Welcome.”  Friday scanned each of them and their bags. 

“Jonello, Jason, Guest Access. No dangerous substances identified. Welcome.”

“Jones, Michelle, Priority Visitor Clearance.  No dangerous substances identified.  Welcome back.”

“Leeds, Ned, Priority Visitor Clearance.  No dangerous substances identified.  Welcome back.”

Peter sighed.  This was . . . this was his life. 

“Parker, Peter, All Access.  Two classified projects detected.  No threat.  Hello Peter; I let Boss know your class is here.  Need anyone in your lab to clear things away?”  He grimaced. 

“No, I’m good.  Thanks, Fri.”  Everyone stared.  Flash’s jaw had dropped considerably.  Peter felt a little smug—whoever hadn’t believed him, well, now they had their proof. 

“All access?” asked Harley.  “Dude, I knew you were some secret high level, but _dang_.  All right.  Anyway—here we go.  Stark Industries was founded—” and he began walking backwards down the hall, the class following. 

First was the history of Howard Stark and the war effort, then Tony’s achievements, then the company itself and Pepper Potts as CEO.  Peter grinned at the different displays of plans for Stark Tower, which even included a tiny replica of how it had been decimated with the Chitauri invasion. 

“Then, of course, the Tower and the Compound became home to the Avengers.  Some live here permanently, some live upstate, and others have different residences altogether.  Obviously the King of Wakanda can’t live in New York!  Because they’re scattered around the world, Mr. Stark decided to make the Avengers museum here, where it all began.  In the museum, there are replicas of the Avengers’ current suits, some of the decommissioned ones, weapons, and some artifacts from major battles.  Mr. Stark calls it the ‘trophy room’ because everyone has souvenirs from major points of their history there.  The Avengers haven’t seen it yet—bar Mr. Stark.  Only a few small tour groups come through this area of the Tower, so this is a real treat.” 

Harley wasn’t kidding when he said it was a museum—it was _insane_ how extensive it was.  Peter hadn’t had time to get to know a lot of the Avengers-adjacent heroes that were displayed, so he went to those first while people took selfies with the Iron Man and Captain America armors. 

He found a display for Doctor Strange, and one for Daredevil.  But then Ned hissed—

“Peter, look, there’s yours!” and dragged him to one of the other cases and—

Wow.  Tony had outdone himself. 

All the versions of suits he had, including the homemade one, all stood next to one another.  A tiny screen display and speaker hosted a tiny port where people could talk to Karen, his personal AI, who greeted him, MJ, and Ned eagerly. 

“Hey, Peter!  Enjoying the tour?”

“It hasn’t sucked yet,” he said cautiously.  “So yes?”

“Any particular answers you want me giving to them?  Since this is your class and all.”

“Uh, nothing too revealing.  You can say Spider-Man and I develop his suits and web shooters together.”

“That is the truth, after all.  Mr. Stark also compiled a list of fun facts for every exhibit—everyone’s favorite Disney movie, for example—and some other different things.”

They moved on to other exhibits, taking selfies and making faces.  Peter sent some to Tony. 

* * *

 

Irondad: Dammit I tried to keep that a secret.  Don’t tell the others; there’s a big reveal on Sunday.  Act surprised

Spiderson: Will do

Spiderson: Such surprise. Much Wow.

Spiderson: .img [comparison of Iron Spider and one of the iron man suits on display]

Spiderson: You’re really the matching outfit kinda dad aren’t you. Kinda tacky

Irondad: Wooooow

Irdondad: See if I let you sleep in your own bed tonight.  Nope. You’re on the communal floor with the rest of the miscreants

Irondad: Talk to you later Pete

* * *

 

“All right everyone, let’s head down to lunch.  At 1:30, meet me somewhere in the cafeteria; I’ll be pretty easy to spot.” 

MJ and Ned finished picking out their food first; it was more of a food court than a cafeteria, but Peter and Ned already knew their favorites, so it wasn’t as daunting to be told _lunch is free to you if you didn’t lose your pass have at it._

Flash awkwardly followed them at a distance before sitting next to them at a table. 

“Peter?” he asked quietly.  “I, uh.  I’m sorry for being a dick.  In general, but especially about the whole internship thing.  I applied and didn’t get in and just.  Didn’t handle it well.  I should have said something before, you know, but being here, the tour guide knowing you, all that—reminded me that I hadn’t.”

Peter frowned at how awkward the entire apology had been.  Flash had eased off gradually—there’d never been a sudden change at all—and he sort of thought of him as a friend.  So he’d kind of forgotten that an apology was necessary. 

“It’s okay, now.  Just never, ever call me Penis Parker again, and we’re fine.”  Flash grinned hopefully. 

“Deal.  So, do you really have your own private labs here?”

And the conversation launched into some of the stuff Peter did—yes he knew the Avengers, a lot of his projects were classified, yes he knew Spider-Man, who told him about the thing with the car, which Flash turned absolutely red at.  Lunch finished, and they headed to R&D lower level labs, continuing to chat as their tour group got settled. 

Michelle demanded to know if he knew anyone from Wakanda, because she’d been meaning to interview someone from there to compare political climates now that they weren’t isolated.  He blushed.

“I can call Princess Shuri and see what she thinks?  Or invite you guys over next time she visits?”  And now MJ looked _royally_ pissed. 

“You know the Princess of Wakanda personally.”

“Uh, yeah?  She comes up here with her brother sometimes.  Either she wants to make fun of Stark Tech because she’s the head of science and innovation there, or she wants to troll her brother, or we make meme videos together and prank the rest of the Avengers.”  Flash looked awed. 

“You know a legit princess, Parker, oh my _god._ ”

Peter would have continued to be amused by Flash’s dumbfounded expression as MJ sketched it, but he was busy being distracted by the demo with Starkphone security.  One of the scientists held up a phone. 

“And this new security system will mean you won’t have to use anything but your fingerprint or your voice to unlock your phone, and that it will match up with your accounts on mobile to automatically log you into your approved apps. We’re figuring out a way to make the screen less breakable without upping cost—”

“—by looking into the materials Mr. Stark and Spider-Man use in the lenses of their suits,” grinned Harley.  “Because those are much more break-resistant, and they do try to keep those costs low.  There might be a merging of materials if we can do that.  Just watch—” he picked up one of the reinforced phones and chucked it across the lab.  It pinged off of a desk where another intern picked it up—everyone in the tour group gasped in horror, but the screen hadn’t cracked. 

“Oh my _god_ ,” grumbled Abe, “Do you give all the tours heart attacks like that?”

Harley grinned. 

The next demo was coding-related—some simple stuff for a medical bot.  The intern shrugged. 

“The physical components started on fire yesterday when I tried to turn him on, so I decided to stick to software for the rest of the week.  He’s going to be a medical bot companion!” he grinned.  “I got started on it through the San Fransokyo Institute, but Stark Industries reps came to me about him.  I’m making a lot of progress, but the response speed depending on input is really slow right now.  Does anyone know why that might be?”

“Lots of medical info to scan?” guessed Betty.  The intern nodded. 

“Yup!  I’m working with some doctors to categorize things so that it can just scan a person and match symptoms to potential diagnoses more quickly.”

Students oohed at the idea.  He held up the schematics. 

“I figure we don’t really want Iron Man or War Machine in the hospital.  He’ll have a balloon-like structure over a lightweight skeleton to be non-threatening and safer around injured patients.”

“Thank you, Mr. Hamada,” nodded the supervisor from across the room.  “When is your little brother coming in?”

“He’s spending summers here with me; he just got accepted into the Institute as a 14-year-old!” he grinned. “Our aunt is making sure he focuses on school in the meantime.”

Harley nodded, explaining to the class. 

“Stark Industries employs interns from college programs.  They hold partnerships with certain STEM programs and business programs to pay interns to do their projects in the company setting.  These internships also cover a lot of class requirements, depending on the contract.”

“Are they paid?” asked Ned. 

“Yes—there’s potential for room and board here, but they also receive a reasonable stipend.  Our interns are also almost always offered full-time positions after they graduate.  Which is a perfect opportunity to move to the next part of the program—we have volunteers willing to take students through some of their routines personally!  We don’t know who’s available until they clock in for sure, so I’m going to let them in and introduce them before you all choose who you want to follow around!”  He looked at his clipboard as interns with badges trailed in.  Tadashi saved his work and stood up to join them.  Harley gave Peter a look. 

“You’ve already met Tadashi, but here are the rest!  Right, okay, so we have Nathaniel, one of our Physics lab interns.  He’s working on time and dimension theories, as well as some projects related to the Iron Man armor,” he gestured towards the first guy in a roughed-up looking lab coat.  Peter wanted to stifle a laugh—Nathaniel never wore a lab coat in the actual lab.  And his Iron Man projects tended to be replica based and showed lots of hardware adjustments for drone versions. 

“Next we have Nadia from Legal—she’s organizing protocols for enhanced individuals and arrest warrants around the greater New York area, since a lot of teams are concentrated here.”

“Milena is a biologist and botanist working with algae as a means to create greener energy solutions.”

“Here’s Thomas from PR—he’s developing go-to and deny lists for organizations trying to take interviews from Stark Industries.  And writing an article about our newer prosthetic division, right?”  Thomas pushed his glasses up his nose and smiled with a shy wave. 

“Max is a biochemist.  They’re making stronger, longer-lasting fiber counts by analyzing spider silk, different metal fibers, and older weaves of fabric that might be better quality than the current standard.”

“Lucius from the business sector is also putting together a strategy to get investors in on the new prosthetics, so if some of your friends split up between him and Thomas, you still will probably pass each other!”

“And finally—well, this is interesting.  We have an option for the last one—Peter?  You wanna take a crew of your friends to your lab, or do you want me to take you all to mine?” he asked.  Peter sighed. 

“I do mostly top-secret stuff, but I can have the crazy hidden stuff put away.  I work on Avengers-related gear, especially Spider-Man’s.” 

“And that’s you’re options!  Groups of no more than five—we don’t want to overwhelm anyone!”  Immediately, Ned, MJ, and Flash all plastered themselves to his side.  Mr. Harrington joined the group with Tadashi .  Everyone split up into their own groups, and Harley waved to Peter. 

“Do you mind taking this?  I can take it if you want.  Tommy just texted me about a double-date with him, Billy, and Teddy, and I—”

Peter laughed. 

“Go, shoo.  Just be back sometime during the dinner portion, yeah?  I’m not going to teach the whole class, man.”  Harley beamed and rushed out the door. 

Peter turned to his expectant friends and sighed, looking up at the ceiling. 

“Friday, is my lab secure for viewing?”

“Yes, and the Sargent has fallen asleep on one of your workbenches.  I believe he was trying to win a game of hide-and-seek with Agent Barton, but Barton got bored and gave up before he did.”  Peter rolled his eyes. 

“Of course.  Right, well, we’re going to have to wake up a hundred-year-old-dude once we get to my lab, but we’re going there.”  Ned looked ecstatic, Flash looked nervous, and MJ looked mildly interested, which was like buzzing with excitement for her.  Peter smiled. 

Today wasn’t going so bad. 


	2. Isolated Shenanigans

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Part 2 of the trip happens - a reveal, continued tours, and more cameo action.

They came up to Peter’s lab to find some scattered projects on tables, and an occupied couch in the corner.  Bucky was sprawled over it, feet dangling over one end. 

“Time to wake up, Bucket!” Peter called, and Bucky sat up quickly.  His friends gaped at his casual nickname.  When Bucky saw that Peter had company, he sputtered. 

“Kid, I swear to God.  I thought your lab would be you-free; I was trying _not_ to annoy you this trip.”

“Harley sent me with my friends up here during the group thing.  It’s fine; you’re one of the least annoying options,” Peter grinned. 

“One of?” Bucky raised his eyebrows. 

“Have you _met_ Bruce?”

“Fair.  Okay, want me out of here?” Peter grinned.  

“Are you kidding?  Hey guys, this is Bucky.  Ned, MJ, Flash.  They’re my classmates—okay, actually, they’re my friends that I roped in with me rather than making another intern tell me things I already know.”  Bucky laughed. 

“Right—hi,” he held his hand out to shake Ned’s, then Flash’s, then MJ’s.  “Maybe four brains are better than one.  Mind helping out with an upgrade I’ve been asking for?”

The whole thing was weird, to have Flash somewhat in on the joke, to be hanging out with his school friends and with Bucky, who’d met and fought Spider-Man before he’d ever heard of Peter Parker.

“So it’s more about the articulation of the limbs feeling more natural,” Peter guessed, as Bucky explained his concerns. 

“You can’t exactly stretch this,” he nodded. “And its capabilities stay the same. No matter if I work out or not, it’s going to always be exactly as strong as it is.”  Peter hummed as he started taking notes. 

“Elasticity without compromising strength.  Changeability.  Yeah, I think we might want to consider having multiple arms and just trading them out, bud,” he chuckled.  Bucky shrugged. 

“That’s why I’m the lab rat for the prosthetics division, right?”  They spent the next few hours throwing ideas around, and slowly but surely, MJ, then Ned, then Flash all joined in.  Peter sent some schematics down to lower-level testing (the privately nicknamed “spaghetti” group, who got the weird ideas and then messed with them to try to get results that were remotely plausible in the real world.  Throwing spaghetti to see if it stuck, etc.)

Apparently, some of the kids in his class were down there when he sent the request, because the next thing was a video call from the Spaghetti lab. 

“Okay, Peter, were you thinking something elastic and realistic, or strong-as-vibranium-but-bendy?” asked Molly, while the business and the PR groups gathered behind them. 

“I think either or both?  For Buck it’s going to end up being number two, but for mass production, it might be worth seeing if we can simulate muscle build for athletes that lose their limbs.  And maybe he’ll need a Casual Thursday kind of arm, too.  You guys know I want to look at both if you can think of it.” 

Molly gave a thumbs up and turned back to the groups. 

“And how would we make those ideas look good?” she asked before turning the camera off. 

Peter attempted to be somewhat educational while he talked with Bucky about his arm and what options for upgrades he could have. In reality, he probably sounded like he was trying too hard, because MJ was making amused faces at him. 

“If there were vibranium enhanced fibers that worked in with shape-memory alloys, he could have some sort of weekly scan to calibrate the arm to balance it out with his right without changing stability,” suggested Flash.  Peter blinked. 

“Yeah, actually.  Where’d you hear of memory alloys?”

“YouTube binge,” he said, and Ned nodded solemnly. 

“It be like that,” he said, and they continued chattering.  Peter got another call, though, and it was Harley. 

“We’re heading down to dinner in the banquet hall on the second floor.  Head down when you’re ready.  Uh, we’ve got our usual Norse visitors. Loki says to tell you he’s at an eight.”  Peter blinked. 

“Dammit.”

* * *

Peter grabbed his friends and waved goodbye to Bucky, who was going to call Shuri about the potential upgrades Peter and his friends had come up with. 

Meanwhile, they took the VIP elevator down to Hall C, a kind of banquet-hall-conference-room for visiting groups to have nicer food than the food court.  Apparently, Dr. Banner had helped out with the menu, because the buffet had a lot of Indian options—and he was off in the corner talking with Thor. 

Loki, on the other hand, was tapping the table he was sitting at, aggravated and alone.  Peter hurried over. 

“Hey, Loki,” he said.  “Still an eight?”  Loki grimaced. 

“Seven; it’s been some time.  We just came from a trip to Old Asgard.”  Peter nodded. 

“What happened?  Or do you want a distraction, instead?” 

Loki sighed and gestured for him and his friends to join him, once they got their food.  There were just enough tables for the class and a few extras, like interns, so Harley bringing his double date companions to their table as well meant that no one from his class besides his closer friends would be able to join in on the conversation. 

Apparently, they’d gone to see the destruction of Asgard to find a smoldering coal of a landscape, and because Loki was still technically a Frost Giant, it had made him increasingly sick for most of the trip.  They’d found their sister, who had been the reason they’d let loose the fire demon in the first place, but she and her giant wolf had been severely damaged by the whole fight, even mentally.  She’d had holes in her memory and had been incredibly weak.  Loki had wanted her dead, but Thor had wanted to give her a chance. 

Loki was not exactly happy about that, already sick and wary of someone who’d made them need to destroy their home.  Thor had turned it on him that Loki had been willing to destroy an ally, and it had been a major argument for pretty much the entire ride to New Asgard.  They kept Hela and Fenrir (a _giant wolf what the heck_ ) in suspended animation to heal and to keep them separate from the rest of the Asgardians, not wanting conflict.  Which Loki had been anticipating, but hey, older brother knows best, as usual.

“Well, if she ends up being shitty, you can stop her,” said MJ.  “She’s not on Asgard, has no army, and frankly, you two are a lot stronger than you were when you last faced her, right?  Not to side with Thor, but she _is_ your sister.  And even if she wasn’t mind controlled, she was definitely brainwashed by years of war and conquest—that does bad things to a person’s head, you know?”

“You’d know how best to bring her to your side,” agreed Billy, stretching.  “She was in it for conquest before.  To be frank, it’s kind of funny that Thor’s the odd one out in your family.  He’s probably just trying to hold onto as much of it as he can,” he said, nodding knowingly at Tommy, who looked like his twin.  Apparently, they weren’t, but it was alternate-timeline-magic related that Peter never could get his head around. 

By now Flash had had his mouth full of curry rice and was listening intently to the story. 

“Thor’s changed in some ways, but in others he’s just trying to be the best brother he can be.  Probably just reminded of you with what she’s done, so he’s trying to not make the same mistakes,” nodded Harley.

Loki looked over at Peter, who shrugged. 

“I gave you a number system, right?  If she lets you, do the same—it helps, right?  Having someone talk you down when it gets to be too much?”  Loki sighed and nodded. 

“Yes.  But I must say I think you’d be better at it than I.  After all, I’m not exactly unbiased in the situation, and she might believe I’m insincere.”

“What am I, the god-wrangler?” Peter joked.  “Sure.  Fine—just be willing to listen for numbers, too.”

“I helped you with yours,” Loki insisted, and they fell into quiet laughter over whatever it was. 

After dinner, though, was some educational film about Stark Industries and the Avengers.  It was a brief promotional thing for SI, mostly tech and job opportunity stuff, which some students wrote frantically down into notes they’d had on them.  Peter had sat in back because he’d seen most of it already. 

“ _Psst!”_ a voice came from behind his seat.  He whipped around to find a red-and-black masked man crouched awkwardly behind him. 

“Dammit, Wade,” he whispered back, “ _Not now._  I’m on a field trip with my class.  Jesus.”

“Ah, but Peter-Peter-Pumpkin-Eater, how else would I get my gratuitous cameo?  The author can’t resist it even if it isn’t a shipping thing.  Anyway, are you coming to the Team Red patrol on Monday?  Double D is going to be introduced to the wonderful world of Critical Role if I can get him to hold still for two minutes.  Do you think he’d—”

“Yeah, sure,” Peter hissed.  “Now can you please leave?  I don’t want to give my teachers heart attacks because I hang out with you, capiche?”

“I capiche, and I also kibosh.  Bye, Peteriffic!”

“Bye, Deadpool.”  Peter slumped in his seat, relieved that it was over.  No more weird social calls. 

* * *

Spoiler alert: It was not, in fact, over.  And this time it was his own damn fault. 

As a breather, everyone was sent over to an emptied-out conference room with a projector and a bunch of movies to choose from.  After everyone had been distracted, he snuck out, locking eyes with Ned for a few moments before heading out of the room.  He texted their group chat that he was going on patrol for a bit and that he’d be back. 

* * *

Biderman: Gotta swing

I’mAKnife: You’re only going to miss Breakfast Club and New Hope.  I think Cindy voted Mean Girls but no one else wants to see it for the 50th time.

TheSitch: LIES I voted for it too

I’mAKnife: Right ok

I’mAKnife: Don’t get killed Pete

 . . .

TheSitch: Flash asked where you went and I got nothing

I’mAKnife: sigh I’ll do damage control

TheSitch: ABORT Flash is going to stay up hes suspicious

* * *

Biderman: Oh crap

* * *

Peter glanced around the dark room and moved towards his sleeping bag.  Everyone was laying down, groggy or sleeping, so he thought he might get through. 

Flash rolled over, eyebrows raised. 

“Where the hell’d you go, Parker?  MJ and Leeds were giving each other looks the entire time they weren’t texting.  What’s going on?” he asked. 

“Uh . . . come in the hallway a sec,” Peter said.  Flash furrowed his brow, but he followed.  Once Peter was sure they were alone, he sighed. 

“Look, you can’t tell anyone, okay?” and walked up the wall to the ceiling before sliding down some webs to be upside-down-but-crouched in front of Flash. 

“So, I’m Spider-Man.”  Flash gaped. 

“Uh—” he shook his head.  “I—Peter, what, and I cannot stress this enough, _the fuck_.”

Peter dropped and shrugged.

“Again, _please_ don’t tell anyone, but it’s basically—remember the Oscorp trip?  They had radioactive spiders?”

Flash wasn’t at Midtown or on the Decathalon team for nothing. 

“You’ve been Spider-Man for years?  Holy hell, Parker . . .”  he frowned.  Peter was anxious, but Flash didn’t seem angry, just thinking hard. 

“Still Spider-Man’s number one fan?” he asked, and Flash took a moment before chuckling. 

“You know what?  Yeah.  Even more so now.”  They grinned, headed back in, and went to bed. 

* * *

Biderman added FastestManAlive to the group: Arachnakids

* * *

That morning, they got a quick breakfast from the food court before going to the SHIELD Q&A.  A few agents from different departments—espionage, liaisons with Avengers, cleanup crews—did presentations, explaining that since the infodump, they became a more public organization, so while not all of their agents were publicly known, they did have public positions available that they _could_ talk about. 

Coulson and Hill were manning the presentation because Fury was, for the most part, banned from the building.  Apparently, Tony had locked him out on Captain Danvers’s request, since he apparently didn’t let her friend Maria call her home for a thing and she had to find out about it from Bucky.  But one way or another, Coulson seemed smug that _he_ at least got to come in of his own accord for the month. 

After that, they finally got to the upper level labs—where Dr. Banner was testing some reactions from a compound that he’d gotten from Reed Richards the week before.  He explained that it had similar properties to that of the Tesseract, and he wanted to be sure it wouldn’t break things it shouldn’t and wouldn’t invite otherworldly visitors. 

He put that away and explained a project they could interact with—some non-lethal Avengers gear.  Specifically, Spider-Man’s web shooters.  Peter had given the go-ahead weeks before for tour groups to do this as an activity, but he hadn’t even _thought_ about being present for it. 

“There’s only two people who normally test these out, and that’s the creators, so this is a unique opportunity,” he said.  “I’ve made some spare simple web compound in a set of his old shooters.  Peter, since you work with Spidey on these, would you mind demonstrating first?” 

Peter sighed before putting on a decent grin. 

“Sure, Dr. Banner.  How do we want to do this?  Part of Spidey’s swinging thing is that he’s so strong—otherwise holding onto this at high speeds could yank his arms out of his sockets.  So for lab testing, I just—” Peter put on the web shooter and pointed his hand upwards, careful to show them how to activate the web shooter.  He pressed and shot a thin string up to the ceiling, releasing the trigger part immediately. 

“Both fingers for pressure, and then—see how it’s taut now?  It can hold a lot of weight, now, so I can just—” he pulled himself up and hung from the webbing, demonstrating that he could hold himself up because the webbing was a) sticky enough to grip and b) strong enough to hold his weight, no problem.  He dropped and explained that the earlier fluid dissolved after a minute, because it was mainly for travel at first.  

“Is it biodegradable?” asked Betty.  Peter nodded. 

“One of the first things I made sure of, besides the strength—weird toxic residue all over Queens?  No thanks.”  Everyone took their turn, some able to tug themselves up and even pose, others hunching and clinging for dear life only a few feet off the ground. 

Flash, despite knowing the secret, still looked incredibly giddy to get the chance, and posed for a picture with a huge grin. 

“So, you can see, we work with all kinds of things—different chemicals and mechanics to have even the most basic of equipment.  It looks easy when Spider-Man does it, but all that R&D?  All of our levels of labs test components, calculate safe speeds and strengths and cost.  It’s a lot to consider to fund a superhero team, not to mention the rest of the company,” Bruce said, gesturing across the lab to the multitude of projects that were going at once with various lab assistants or bots doing their own things. 

“And now I shall take you to our training rooms!” boomed Thor, who had until then been hunched over on a bench facing away from them.  Everyone jumped, sans Peter who'd felt it coming. 

“Now, please follow me!” he said, making his way to the elevator.  The teachers were the next to the doors, ushering students in.  Apparently, Cap, Bucky, Sam, Nat, and Clint were working on some group sparring.  It was hard to tell if it was everyone for themselves or if there were teams, because one minute Bucky and Steve would be fighting Clint together, and the next Bucky would knee Steve in the gut. 

“Friends!” Thor called. “Time to instruct the young ones in the art of defense!”

They all dropped what they were doing and turned to the class. 

“Thank you, Captain, Sargent,” said Principal Morita.  Steve blinked and looked at him, surprised. 

“You wouldn’t happen to be—”

“Kevin Morita,” he said, “Grandpa Jim had plenty of things for me to learn, and one of them was: don’t be like the Cap and Bucky on screens.  They were real men.  It’s good to finally meet you both, an honor,” he said, inclining his head.  Steve held out a hand to shake, but pulled him in for a half-hug. 

“We were thinking of setting up a Howlies-family dinner.  With us all so spread out we thought it would be difficult, but apparently, we’re not all that far off,” Bucky said.  “Anyway, hello, Midtown.  I’m Bucky Barnes—this is Steve, Sam, Natasha, and Clint.  The world can be dangerous, and while the most important thing is to get _away_ from danger, sometimes we have to fight to be able to do that.  We’re going to show you some basic moves to deescalate a situation so you can run or get help or slow down an attacker.” 

Natasha, Sam, and Clint then took over the instruction, using Steve and Bucky to model the moves, since the soldiers were good at holding themselves still even in stressful positions.  Everyone paired up, but there was an odd number, so Peter was elected to pair up with Clint.  Luckily, no one put too much thought into it—after all, it was Hawkeye, who wasn’t exactly _known_ for his hand-to-hand, despite being able to keep up with super soldiers. 

After a few hours of that, with luckily no major incidents, they joined up to grab their overnight supplies and other belongings.  Their final thing was an Avengers Q&A session in a small presentation room.  Peter sat in the back again, chatting briefly with Ned, MJ, and Flash. 

“Why is he in the group chat, Peter?” Ned asked.  He’d been glancing between Peter and Flash for most of the morning, but he hadn’t brought it up since there hadn’t been a huge need for it. 

“Because I told him and he was chill,” Peter replied.  “Anyway, this is an Avengers questioning thing, and I am not technically an Avenger, so yeah, let’s listen in.”  The members that showed up were ones he’d already seen throughout the trip—Steve, Bruce, Nat, Clint, Sam, Thor, and Wanda came in first, followed by—who else?—Tony, wearing sunglasses indoors in addition to his business suit that Peter was sure he was wearing only to show off around Peter.  He could have shown up in a Metallica t-shirt and achieved the same effect, but hey, it was Tony.

Everyone asked questions Peter knew the answers to—how does it feel to fly, who’s _really_ in charge, favorite thing about the tower, future, other teammates.  It was social, light stuff, since people seemed to be afraid to anger anyone. 

But not MJ. 

“Ms. Romanov?” she asked.  Nat raised an eyebrow.  “Though as the team has grown, it’s gained a more reasonable ratio of women, what was your experience being the first and only woman on a team of superheroes in the way the world is?  What challenges did you face from coworkers or outside influences?” 

Natasha blinked before giving her answer, which basically explained that the men on the team had a healthy respect for women and that it was mainly idiots outside of their command that seemed to think she was either not good enough or was good at only one thing in particular.  With that, it pulled a thread of more charged, interested questions—Steve and Bucky’s views on the way war is looked at now versus their time, or some of Tony’s ideas for clean energy advancements for home tech.  Then, Seymour raised his hand, stood up, and started signing at Clint, who blinked. 

“Oh hel— _heck_ —kid, I wasn’t expecting that.  Right.”  He started signing back, talking in a delayed, thoughtful tone over his signs. 

“This kid, right, asked if I’ve experienced ableism, or if I’ve thought about how the Deaf community benefited from having a superhero in their ranks.  To be honest, I hadn’t thought about it—I’m of the age that my deafness was seen as a weakness, you know?  Early on in the field I had to learn how to adjust.  But if that’s something people would want, or need, I’m down.  After Bucky started going to these vet and amputee events?  It’s kinda been on my mind.  Yeah.  Maybe I should start something. Thanks, uh—”

“Seymour.  My brother’s deaf, so I thought I’d ask about it, since you’re kinda his favorite superhero ever since he figured out you were like him.”  Clint beamed, and signed something without saying it.  Peter caught a bit of it, something about signing something and asking Peter to give it to him. 

Peter wasn’t exactly going to say _no_ , was he?

But before he could even think about it, the trip was over.  Everyone headed up to the bus, and Peter waved to Flash, Ned, and MJ, grinning. 

“We’re coming back, dammit,” MJ said, “Stop with that smug look.  It’s not very flattering.”

“We are?” asked Flash. 

“Well, yeah.  Gotta test out that memory alloy thing, right?  And then we can call Shuri and help her prank her brother.” 

“ _Awesome_ ,” Ned and Flash said in unison. 

* * *

I’mAKnife changed the group name from Arachnakids to the Better Fantastic Four

I’mAKnife: and since we will be nowhere near the compound in Banner’s lab, Peter, you have to check it out

TheSitch: For Science

FastestManAlive: ye

FastestManAlive: also now we’ll be way out of blast radius so

FastestManAlive: don’t die

Biderman: bet

Biderman: IT’S ALTERNATE UNIVERSE JUICE

Biderman: THERE ARE SEVERAL SPIDER PEOPLE

Biderman: AND A PIG???

TheSitch: well now you have a new group chat to make

FastestManAlive: and you already have a name to steal so

Biderman: WE CAN'T ALL BE BIDERMAN

I'mAKnife: You'll have to fight it out to see who gets the best name

TheSitch: oof you're not going to win that pete 

FastestManAlive: f

* * *

He had the best friends, because they were all laughing at his insane life, and he was laughing right with them.   

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This just in: the fic is finished! I may have a Spiderverse fic in the works, but for now I'd rather finish some of my WIPs first. Hope you enjoyed! 
> 
> Comments and kudos give me life friends especially now that I've decided to start law school lol


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